Abrasive particles in an oil supply can damage engine and transmission components and adversely affect the performance of the machine.
Accordingly, the necessity of routine oil changes is well understood. Such maintenance is one of the most cost-effective measures which can be taken toward preserving and prolonging the useful life of a transmission.
Unfortunately, the process of changing transmission oil is both time-consuming and messy. Additionally, as working space becomes more and more cramped within the engine compartments of modern vehicles it becomes burdensome to have to change oil as frequently as prescribed. Generally, the process involves hydraulically lifting the vehicle, climbing under the vehicle, locating an oil filter, removing the oil filter, and attaching a new filter. The space constraints are tight, the engine and transmission may be extremely hot, and the mechanic performing the oil change gets dirty. As a result, changing oil is likely to be postponed or ignored to the detriment of the transmission. In fleet vehicles routine maintenance, such as scheduled oil changes, may be mandated by fleet operations. While this may ensure that the vehicles are routinely served, it does nothing to reduce or eliminate the time and mess involved in oil change. These problems and procedures for avoiding them are costly to the fleet owner in terms of both down-time and man-hours.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,92,632, issued to Fred P. Mattson, attempts to overcome the problems described above by providing an adapter that attaches to a transmission housing. A supply line of oil leaves the transmission into supply lines and travels to a remotely mounted filter, which filters the oil to remove impurities. The oil returns to the transmission through a return line and through the adapter. The Mattson patent suffers from at least one deficiency in that the filter assembly introduces the adapter, which takes additional space and increases cost.
The present invention is directed to overcome the above-identified deficiencies.